Already earlier on Sunday, Russia's Foreign Ministry stated in a statement that Bashar al-Assad "resigned" as president and left Syria, according to Tass.
In the statement, it was stated that al-Assad had ordered a "peaceful transfer of power" before his resignation.
Now, it is reported that al-Assad is in Moscow and parts of his family have also been granted asylum in Russia for humanitarian reasons, according to a Tass source.
Left at midnight
The President is said to have left Damascus around midnight local time and flown to a Russian military base in Syria, writes Axios' international correspondent Barak Ravid on X, citing Israeli sources. From there, the plan was to continue to the Russian capital, but it was unclear for a long time whether he had left his home country.
The information was somewhat contradictory to what the US's incoming President Donald Trump stated. He wrote on his social media platform Truth that al-Assad fled his country after losing support from Russia – and hinted that Putin was no longer "interested in protecting him".
Speculations about shot-down plane
Two high-ranking military officials told the news agency Reuters that al-Assad flew from Damascus early on Sunday with an unknown destination. A Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus airport around the time the capital was taken over by jihadist rebels, according to the site Flightradar.
The plane first flew towards Syria's coast, but then made a U-turn and flew in the opposite direction for a few minutes before disappearing from the site's map.
Two Syrian sources told Reuters early on Sunday that it was very likely that al-Assad had died in a plane crash.
